WTC7 seems to be a classic controlled demolition. WTC 1 &2 destruction appears to have been enhanced by thermate (a variation of thermite) in addition.
Pentagon was not struck by a passenger aircraft. It was a drone or missle.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

[imra] Daily digest - Volume: 2 Issue: 1420 (11 messages)

imra Sat Jun 17 00:28:32 2006 Volume 2 : Issue 1420

In this issue of the imra daily Digest:

Weekly Commentary: Is it moral to die for human shields? Three Kassams launched, two land in Israel Six Qassams launched, five land in Israel Steinberg: HRW's rush to judgement -- launches another PR attack against Israel Israel Radio drops report of Qassam attacks from 9:00 AM news Israel Radio drops report of Qassam attacks from 9:00 AM news Two Qassams hit Moshav Shuva - one hits greenhouse Excerpts: Iran-Syria pact against 'common threats'. Who makes policy in Arab countries? 16 June 2006 [Speed record?]Weapons Olmert gave to PA already killed Israeli [Deja vu?]Ramon: Halt rockets, or we will hit Gaza harder Olmert's plan for Jerusalem[ignores Arab mobility]

From: imra@netvision.net.ilTo: imra@imra.org.ilSubject: Weekly Commentary: Is it moral to die for human shields?

Weekly Commentary: Is it moral to die for human shields?

Aaron Lerner Date: 15 June 2006

"I have always maintained that there has to be proportional use of force, and governments have to be careful not to take action in areas where civilians are remotely likely to be put in harm's way"UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan 13 June 2006

Kofi Annan may indeed think it is not nice for the Palestinians to manufacture, store and launch rockets from within the Palestinian civilian population, but he rewards such behavior by arguing that Israel must respect the human shields - even if this means sacrificing Israeli civilian lives.

The Palestinians argue that they have the right to murder the residents of Sderot as part of their "right to resist the occupation". But Yasser Arafat's September 9, 1993 letter to Yitzhak Rabin committing on behalf of the Palestinian People to "a peaceful resolution of the conflict. . . resolved through negotiations" forfeited whatever "right" to violent "resistance" the Palestinians could have conceivably had prior to Oslo.

That's not to say that Arafat's letter and the agreements that followed it stripped the Palestinians of the ability to struggle for their interests. It just limited them to pursuing them via non-violent means - both on the domestic and the international front.

In an ideal world Israeli technology would zap the rockets out of the sky, thus avoiding Annan's criticism. But there simply isn't such equipment available tonight to protect the residents of Sderot from the next barrage.

By the same token, while Israel has made strides in its ability to identify and target rocket teams as they deploy to launch, a considerable number of launches are carried out before the teams can be taken out.

As a result, Israel finds itself constantly having to choose between exposing Israeli civilians to the risk of being murdered by Palestinian rockets or taking action against the rocket teams and the infrastructure supporting the teams where Palestinian "civilians are remotely likely to be put in harm's way."

Right now Defense Minister Amir Peretz is opting to prefer the safety of Palestinian human shields over that of his neighbors in Sderot.

This may play well among radical Left circles and the Kofi Annans of the world but it remains nothing more than a grotesque perversion of morality.

Ironically, when one compares IDF operations in the West Bank, where crack ground teams are constantly operating in urban areas with most "civilian" casualties limited to people who actively decided to remain at the scene of an operation, to the almost exclusively airborne operations Israel carries out in the evacuated Gaza Strip, one could readily conclude that the best way to reduce the loss of "innocent" Palestinian lives is for Israel to retake the Gaza Strip.

From: imra@netvision.net.ilTo: imra@imra.org.ilSubject: Six Qassams launched, five land in Israel

Six Qassams launched, five land in Israel

Dr. Aaron Lerner June 16, 2006

Israel Radio reported on the 7:00 news broadcast that according to correspondent Nissim Keinan a total of six Qassams were launched from the Gaza Strip overnight, five of which landed in Israel [this is double the number reported on the 5:00 AM news]. He also reported that the IDF thwarted the launching of one Qassam by firing at the launching team.

HRW is clearly under pressure to "prove" that its support for the Palestinian version is correct --- and the subheading "Palestinians Agree to Independent Inquiry" could have been used in the Jenin "massacre" myth campaign, and on many other occasions. For HRW and the Palestinians, "independent" means the UN or another body dominated by anti-Israel ideologues, where the outcome is never in doubt.

In today's press release, like the previous one, Garlasco and HRW present the narrow claims that might support their version, while ignoring all of the contradictory data. The claim that the Israeli government has attributed this explosion to a mine planted by the Palestinians is also incorrect -- there is some unofficial speculation, particularly in the media, but no official statement on the possible cause. And it is interesting that while Garlasco portrays himself as a military expert, we know very little about his actual combat experience, if any. What is his political agenda, and why has he not provided a report on the sources and manufacture of Palestinian rockets and missiles? For the mass media, the NGO "halo effect" remains intact, at least for now.

(Gaza, June 15, 2006) - A digitally dated and time-stamped blood test report of a victim treated at a Palestinian hospital that admitted wounded from the June 9 killings on a Gaza beach suggests that the attack took place during the time period of an Israeli artillery attack, Human Rights Watch said today. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have denied responsibility for the killings, saying that although they fired six artillery shells onto the beach between 4:32 p.m. and 4:51 p.m., the fatal incident must have occurred after that.

Human Rights Watch first challenged this conclusion, concluding that the IDF most likely caused the killings, in a press release, www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/13/isrlpa13544.htm , based on an investigation by its researchers in Gaza.

Human Rights Watch researchers examined the computer-generated record from the Kamal Adwan hospital, which documents the blood test of a victim from the beach incident being taken at 5:12 p.m. on June 9. Furthermore, hand-written hospital records log patients from the incident as having been admitted starting at 5:05 p.m. If the records are accurate, based on the time needed to dispatch an ambulance and drive from the hospital to the beach and back, this suggests that the fatal explosion took place at a time when the IDF said they was firing artillery rounds. Both sets of records also directly call into question the account of the IDF that ambulances did not reach the beach until 5:15 p.m. that day.

Altering the records would require re-setting the computer's clock and re-writing pages of the hospital's admissions log. Human Rights Watch researchers said that the pages they saw documented patients un-related to the beach incident, followed by two pages of victims from the beach. The first of those were admitted at 5:05 p.m. The researchers saw no evidence that the times might have been altered.

Israeli military officials have also suggested the explosion, which killed seven members of the Ghalya family and wounded many others, might have been caused by a mine. But Human Rights Watch researchers also examined blood-crusted shrapnel given to them by the father of a 19-year-old male who suffered abdominal wounds in the beach explosion. They determined that the shrapnel is a piece of fuse from an artillery shell.

"The likelihood that the Ghalya family was killed by an explosive other than one of the shells fired by the IDF is remote," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. "This new evidence highlights the urgent need for Israel to permit an independent, transparent investigation into the beach killings."

Human Rights Watch received a fax today from the office of Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, saying that the president's office, which is holding much of the shrapnel removed from the blast victims, would cooperate and share evidence with an independent inquiry team.

Israel Radio's 9:00 AM news bulletin declined to mention the Qassam attacks that hit Israel over the course of the evening and early morning.

Israel Radio reported on the 7:00 news broadcast that according tocorrespondent Nissim Keinan a total of six Qassams were launched from theGaza Strip overnight, five of which landed in Israel [this is double thenumber reported on the 5:00 AM news]. He also reported that the IDFthwarted the launching of one Qassam by firing at the launching team.

Israel Radio reported on the 10:30 newsbreak that two Qassam rockets slammed into Moshav Shuva, one of which hit a greenhouse. The item declined to mention that this brings the Qassam total for the day so far to 8.

An interview with DM Peretz appears in the Friday papers and on YNET. The interview took place during the temporary halt in Qassaam attacks that Peretz attributed to his strong warning to the Palestinians that Israel would act if the attacks continued. Since then the attacks have resumed but DM Peretz has apparently turned his focus towards removing Israeli outposts in the West Bank rather than delivering on his warning to the Palestinians.

Israel Radio's 9:00 AM news bulletin declined to mention the Qassam attacksthat hit Israel over the course of the evening and early morning.

Israel Radio reported on the 7:00 news broadcast that according tocorrespondent Nissim Keinan a total of six Qassams were launched from theGaza Strip overnight, five of which landed in Israel [this is double thenumber reported on the 5:00 AM news]. He also reported that the IDFthwarted the launching of one Qassam by firing at the launching team.

Israel Radio reported on the 10:30 newsbreak that two Qassam rockets slammedinto Moshav Shuva, one of which hit a greenhouse. The item declined tomention that this brings the Qassam total for the day so far to 8.

An interview with DM Peretz appears in the Friday papers and on YNET. Theinterview took place during the temporary halt in Qassaam attacks thatPeretz attributed to his strong warning to the Palestinians that Israelwould act if the attacks continued. Since then the attacks have resumed butDM Peretz has apparently turned his focus towards removing Israeli outpostsin the West Bank rather than delivering on his warning to the Palestinians.

Israel Radio's 9:00 AM news bulletin declined to mention the Qassam attacksthat hit Israel over the course of the evening and early morning.

Israel Radio reported on the 7:00 news broadcast that according tocorrespondent Nissim Keinan a total of six Qassams were launched from theGaza Strip overnight, five of which landed in Israel [this is double thenumber reported on the 5:00 AM news]. He also reported that the IDFthwarted the launching of one Qassam by firing at the launching team.

HEADING:"Military accord names Israel and United States"QUOTES FROM TEXT: "Iran and Syria ... agreement for military cooperation against 'common threats' ...by Israel and the United States"

"Iran is ready to sign a non-aggression pact with regional countries"-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EXCERPTS:TEHRAN: Defense ministers from close allies Iran and Syria on 15 June signed an agreement for military cooperation against what they called the "common threats" presented by Israel and the United States. ...consolidating their defense efforts and strengthening support for one another.... Syrian side has purchased some Iranian military equipment.... formation of a joint Supreme Defense Commission ... .. .Washington has included Syria in its "axis of evil" that also comprises Iran and North Korea, citing these nations as "supporters of terrorism." ..., Turkmani dismissed the possibility of hosting an Iranian military base on Syrian soil. ...The Iranian defense minister said: "US threats are a kind of psychological operation. It is not new. With unity among the region's nations, these threats will not prevail." ..."We will continue both research and development and production of missiles as part of our current trend of activities," (Iranian defense minister) ... .Although the two refused to give specifics about the agreement for military cooperation, Najjar said Iran "considers Syria's security its own security, and we consider our defense capabilities to be those of Syria." ..."Iran is ready to sign a non-aggression pact with regional countries," Najjar said.Iran's Shahab-3 missiles have a range of 2,000 kilometers, capable of hitting Israel and US bases in the region. Israel and the United States have jointly developed the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system, which could intercept Iran's Shahab-3 missiles. ...

+++JORDAN TIMES 16-17 June '06 "Rule by militias, a chronic Arab problem" by Rhami G. KhouriQUOTES FROM TEXT: "common habit of tying to dictate political policy through the use of gunmen on the streets""What do we know ... about the political sentiments of the Fateh and Hamas gunmen ... noble concept ... Or power and sharing the material spoils of incumbancy?"-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------EXCERPTS:The events in Palestine Monday highlighted dramatically the reasons why representatives from a dozen research centres in the Arab world, Europe and the United States gathered in Amman this week to explore the issue of reforming Arab armed forces and security agencies.Hamas gunmen Monday fired rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank rockets at the Gaza headquarters of the Fateh-dominated Preventive Security Forces; in return, Fateh gunmen...burned the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet buildings in Ramallah. This spectacle of military forces taking to the street, shooting people and burning public offices they believe to be controlled by their rivals brings that society closer to the point where armed gangs and party militias effectively take over the political process....: Who holds power and makes policy in Arab countries, elected civilian authorities or gunmen on the street?...armed groups, private armies, neighbourhood gangs and party militias seem to be a growth industry throughout the Middle East. . . ..security sector reform is imperative if other reforms - economic, political, social - are to have a chance of succeeding in Arab lands. . . .In Palestine today, we also see the common habit of trying to dictate political policy through the use of gunmen on the streets.. . .....security is a legitimate and crucial task, and it is best performed by professional agencies working closely with elected civilian bodies, according to laws enforced by an independent judiciary.... Any goal that is seen to emanate from Western capitals, no matter how good or appropriate (e.g., democracy, human rights, free press), is likely to generate stiff resistance in Arab societies ........ What do we know... about the political sentiments of the Fateh and Hamas gunmen burning public buildings in Ramallah and Gaza? Are they fighting for a noble concept of an independent Palestine living in democracy, freedom and peace? Or are they more interested in holding on to power and sharing the material spoils of incumbency?

Terrorist says that rifles transferred last week by Israel to Abbas for security have been employed in shooting attacks against Israelis

Weapons transferred last week by Israel to Force 17, the presidential guard units of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, will be utilized for attacks against Jews, a senior member of Force 17 told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview today.

16 June 2006www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3263652,00.html

The militant, Abu Yousuf, hinted the weapons already were used in two shooting attacks the past few days that killed one Israeli civilian and wounded another.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced earlier this week he had approved a shipment of weapons and ammunition, which reportedly include over 370 assault rifles and were destined for Force 17. The shipment reportedly originated in Jordan and needed Israel's approval for transport.

Olmert said the shipment was meant to bolster security forces loyal to Abbas amid an increasingly violent power struggle between the PA chairman's Fatah party and Hamas, which won recent Palestinian parliamentary elections.

"I did this because we are running out of time and we need to help Abu Mazen," Olmert told reporters Tuesday.

The weapons reportedly were escorted by Israel to Ramallah and to the Gaza border where they were received by Force 17 members.

Weapons 'won't be used against brothers'

Abu Yousuf said the weapons will be fired at Israelis. "These weapons will not be used in an internal war but against Israelis," he said. "Force 17 is proud that we were the first to lead the Palestinian people during tough times such as resistance operations (against the Israeli army during large-scale operations in northern Samaria in 2002). We will also be the first to lead the Palestinians in the current struggle against Israeli occupation."

Several Force 17 members, including Yousuf, also are members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terror group linked to Abbas' Fatah party responsible for scores of suicide bombings and shooting attacks.

Yousuf himself previously participated in anti-Israel terrorism, including recent shootings, attacks last month against Israeli forces operating in Ramallah and a shooting attack in northern Samaria in December 2000 that killed Benyamin Kahane, leader of the ultranationalist Kahane Chai organization.

After the Kahane murder, Yousuf was extended refuge by Yasser Arafat to live in the late PLO leader's Ramallah compound, widely known as the Muqata. Yousuf still lives in the compound.

Abbas earlier this week appointed Mahmoud Damra to head Force 17. Damra, who is on Israel's most wanted list of terrorists, was offered shelter in Arafat's compound in Ramallah in 2002 after Israel accused him of masterminding a string of terrorist attacks.

Israeli security officials say that since September 2000, Damra has led a terror cell based in Ramallah that has carried out deadly attacks, including shootings at Israeli vehicles, attacks against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and the planting of roadside bombs.

Yousuf told WorldNetDaily Israel transferred the weapons to his Force 17 unit "for its own political purposes. We are not concerned with the reasons. The weapons will not be used against our brothers, only (against) Israelis."

Rifles already employed for terror

Sources close to the Al Aqsa Brigades told WND assault rifles transferred by Israel to Force 17 already were used in two separate anti-Israel shooting attacks in recent days. One attack killed a 35-year-old Israeli Arab on a major West Bank highway on the outskirts of Jerusalem this past Sunday. Israeli security officials say the shooters likely mistook the victim for a Jew. The second attack, which occurred Tuesday on the same highway, lightly wounded an Israeli.

Yousuf refused to confirm whether Israeli weapons were used in the recent spate of highway shootings, but he hinted the information was accurate. He told WND members of Al Aqsa Brigades live with him in the Muqata and that "resistance tools" are shared regularly.

Ramon: Halt rockets, or we will hit Gaza harderBy Haaretz Service 16 June 2006www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/727844.html

Israel will ratchet up its military reaction to Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip unless the Palestinians work to halt the attacks, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Friday.

"If the residents of the Gaza Strip don't act and don't understand that the biggest threat to their security is the Qassam fire, then we will have to intensify our response and take steps that we have not yet taken," he told Israel Radio. He did not specify which steps were being considered.

MK Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, called on the Israel Defense Forces on Friday to announce that it will target Hamas leaders' homes in response to Qassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported.

Israel has already warned Hamas that it would attack the group's leaders unless the rocket fire was halted, and Palestinian sources told Haaretz that as a result, Hamas instructed its operatives Monday night to stop firing Qassams at Israel. However, Hamas later denied the Haaretz report.

Lieberman held a faction meeting Friday in the Negev town of Sderot, which has been a frequent target of rocket fire. He said the next Knesset plenum session should also be held in Sderot.

A Qassam rocket hit a moshav in the western Negev on Friday, causing some damage, Israel Radio reported. Palestinians fired six other Qassams at Israel on Thursday night and Friday. There were no injuries.

During his tour this week of European capitals, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that in addition to Judea and Samaria, he plans to transfer a number of neighborhoods in Jerusalem to Hamas. In his words, "Not all the Arab neighborhoods will be part of the city in the future."Olmert claims that taking these Arab neighborhoods out of Jerusalem's municipal boundaries will strengthen the city. From a security perspective this makes no sense since transferring Tzur Baher, Jebl Mukaber and Isawiya to the Hamas-Fatah-Islamic Jihad-al-Qaida-Hizbullah-led Palestinian Authority will place all the remaining neighborhoods in the city within enemy rocket, mortar and even rifle range.

Olmert apparently thinks that partitioning the city will secure the Jewish majority of the city. Yet, taking these neighborhoods out of the city will actually endanger that majority.

Over the past few months, a team of American and Israeli researchers conducted a demographic study of Jerusalem and its environs. Last year the same researchers - Bennett Zimmerman, Roberta Seid, Michael Weiss and Yoram Ettinger - conducted the first independent study of the Palestinian population data published by the PA's Central Bureau of Statistics in 1997. Their study exposed that the PA had inflated the number of Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and Gaza by some 1.5 million or 50 percent. Olmert and his colleagues in Kadima and the Labor Party have justified their plan to surrender Judea and Samaria to Hamas on the basis of these inflated numbers which falsely project that by 2015 there will be more Arabs than Jews between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

The team's research methods and their findings were reviewed by the leading American demographer Nicholas Eberstadt from the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. At the Herzliya Conference in January, Eberstadt praised the team's research methods and stated that their conclusions were "not only plausible but quite persuasive."

Their study showed that today Jews comprise 59 percent of the overall population of the areas that include sovereign Israel, Judea and Samaria and Gaza and 67 percent of the population of Judea, Samaria and sovereign Israel. Far from becoming the minority by 2015, the group's projections show that in 2025, Jews will comprise between 56-71 percent of the overall population of Judea, Samaria and sovereign Israel. In other words, the team showed that there is no demographic threat to Israel's Jewish majority.

The team began examining the demographic situation in Jerusalem and its environs after Olmert first expressed his plan to partition the city as part of his unilateral retreat policy. The team noted at the outset that Olmert's claim - that by placing Arab neighborhoods outside the municipal boundaries he would be reducing the Arab population of the capital by tens of thousands - ignores the fact that Arabs can move. As legal residents of Jerusalem these Arabs are under no obligation to remain in the neighborhoods slotted for transfer to Hamas.

Indeed, since the government's intention to partition the city was made clear by the route of the security fence, thousands of Arabs with Jerusalem ID cards who had previously lived in Judea and in neighborhoods set to be placed outside the city's boundaries started converging on the city. Residents of Pisgat Ze'ev and Neveh Ya'acov relate that Arabs are moving into their neighborhoods in droves. This is also the case in the city's Arab neighborhoods not set for transfer to Hamas such as Beit Tzafafa, Wadi Joz and Abu Tor. Rather than reduce the number of Arabs in the city, Olmert's plan is just crowding the city's population into shrunken boundaries. At the same time, by giving up all the reserve open lands around the city, he is blocking all chance of municipal growth.As Zimmerman and his team members note, in Jerusalem's current municipal boundaries, 487,000 Jews make up 68% of the population and 231,000 Arabs make up 32%. Fertility rates of the two populations are nearly identical, with a Jewish fertility rate of 3.8 and an Arab fertility rate of 4.1 per woman.

The team checked what would happen if, rather than partitioning the city, Israel were to expand the boundaries of the city. They found that if Israel were to extend the borders of the capital to include the Adumim bloc, the Etzion bloc, the Adam bloc, the Givon bloc, Mevasseret Zion and its satellite neighborhoods, the Tekoa area, Abu Dis and Bir Naballah and incorporate all these communities' Jewish and Arab residents into the city, Jerusalem's demographic balance would remain the same. The enlarged city would have 704,000 or 68% Jewish residents and 335,000 or 32% Arab residents.

The enlarged capital would have plenty of land reserves on which to build new housing for both its Jewish and Arab residents. Retaining Israeli control over the areas around Jerusalem's current boundaries would also protect Bethlehem's status as a Christian city while Olmert's plan, which places these areas under terrorist control, guarantees that Jesus's birth city will become a Muslim majority city with all the religious and political consequences that such a religious transformation would involve for the Christian world. The study shows that the number of Arabs that would be incorporated into the city if it were to expand its borders is smaller than the number of Arabs incorporated into the city with its unification in 1967. And it goes without saying that an enlarged Jerusalem would be safer than a partitioned city with its removed sections under terrorist control.In light of the study's findings, and given the deterioration of Israel's national security situation in the wake of its retreat from Gaza last summer and the recent reports of al-Qaida cells operating in Jerusalem, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that in configuring his retreat and partition plan for the country's capital city, Olmert did not consider its devastating repercussions on Jerusalem itself.SO IF Olmert's planned retreat harms Jerusalem, what purpose does it serve? The sole goal that Olmert's partition plan advances is that of attempting to appease racist, anti-Jewish radical Islamic forces that claim that Jews have no rights in Jerusalem. Indeed, at its core, Olmert's plan internalizes this jihadist view by completely ignoring the security, municipal and demographic concerns of the city's Jews and non-jihadist Arabs.

This Israeli internalization of the jihadist view of Jews in Jerusalem also pervades the government's treatment of Jewish land purchases in eastern Jerusalem. Last week Ha'aretz reported that a month ago the State's Attorney, Eran Shendar, asked Police Inspector Yohanan Danino to undertake a covert investigation of Ateret Cohanim - a non-profit organization that works to bypass the Palestinian Authority's policy of defining land sales to Jews as a capital offense for which dozens of Arabs have been murdered since 1994.

Shendar's instructions came after an Arab Jerusalemite named Muhammad Marageh, who in the past worked for Ateret Cohanim, offered to attempt to criminally implicate the organization in exchange for receiving state's witness protection and, perhaps, money from the state. The Ha'aretz report makes clear that Israel's chief prosecutor is so convinced that there is something wrong with willing Arab sellers selling land to willing Jewish buyers that apparently, without being presented with any evidence of wrongdoing, he ordered the police to begin a secret criminal investigation of the Jews.

This anti-Jewish view is similarly manifested in the police's indifference to the fates of Arab land sellers. On April 12, the eve of Passover, Jerusalem resident Muhammad Abu Al Hawa was tortured and murdered in Jericho for the "crime" of selling a building in Abu Tor to Jews. The week before his murder Israel's Channel 10 led prime time news broadcasts, on two consecutive nights, with hysterical reports about the land sale. The reports were precipitated by a court order for the police to evict illegal squatters from the building to enable the legal owners to take possession of their property - an eviction which Channel 10 filmed.

As I reported at the time, sources in Abu Tor stated that after the Channel 10 expose, it was only a question of time before Hawa was murdered. Those sources also said that far from protecting Hawa, the police were suspected of tipping off Channel 10's reporter on the scheduled eviction. This week, the spokesman for the police's Samaria and Judea District responsible for investigating Hawa's murder did not respond to repeated requests for information on the status of the investigation.

THE GOVERNMENT'S treatment of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate similarly exposes its internalization of the anti-Semitic view that Jews have no rights in eastern Jerusalem. Today there are two Patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church: the legal Patriarch Irineos and the illegal de facto Patriarch Theophilos. Last summer Ma'ariv reported that Irineos leased two hotels near the Old City's Jaffa Gate to Jews. The story caused an uproar in the Church, the PA and among Israeli Arabs. In its wake, Irineos was illegally ejected from his position and his life has been under constant threat.

The Church, together with Jordan's King Abdullah and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, selected Theophilos to replace him. Ahead of his appointment, Theophilos promised Abdullah that he would operate in accordance with Jordanian rather than Israeli law, meaning that he would uphold the Jordanian legal prohibition of conducting land deals with Jews. Attorneys and others involved in this issue claim that Theophilis also pledged to Abbas that he would cancel the lease agreement for the hotels at the Jaffa Gate.

In an interview with Al Quds newspaper on May 18, Theophilos said that he was unable today to fulfill his pledges because the Israeli government has yet to approve his appointment.

To force Israel's hand, Theophilos filed a petition with the Supreme Court demanding that the government approve his appointment. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the petition on July 19. The Jews involved in the Jaffa Gate lease agreement and in other land agreements with the Greek Orthodox Church, which owns vast landholdings in Jerusalem and throughout the country, are deeply concerned about the government's likely response to the petition. The government did nothing when Irineos was sacked although it is legally bound to protect him and his position. Indeed, Israel has allowed Theophilos to act as the de facto Patriarch.

The government's acceptance of the jihadist view that denies all Jewish rights to Jerusalem is nowhere more evident than on the Temple Mount, which since 1995 Israel has abandoned to the control of the PA's Mufti Ikrameh Sabri. Sabri preaches the "rights" of Arabs to eradicate the Jews whom he refers to as "pigs and monkeys." And with the backing of the Israeli government, he ensures that the police enforces his ban on Jewish and Christian worship on the Temple Mount.

Moreover, under the impotent eye of the government, for the past decade Sabri has overseen the commission of one of the most heinous archaeological crimes in human history. While denying the Judeo-Christian sanctity of the site, since the mid-1990s the Islamic Wakf on the Temple Mount has been systematically destroying Jewish and Christian relics hidden inside the mountain that date back to the time of Solomon's Temple, in an attempt to erase the historical record. Sabri and his colleagues further exploit their control of the Temple Mount to incite Muslims to attack Jews for imagined crimes relating to the so-called "Judaization" of Jerusalem.

In answer to reporters' queries, this week Olmert repeatedly stated that he would never give up the Temple Mount. But his statements are meaningless. You cannot give up what you already surrendered. No, Olmert is not giving up the Temple Mount. Olmert is giving up all of Jerusalem.